


Worth Your Weight in Gold

by YorkandDelta



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Developing Relationship, Fake AH Crew, M/M, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-07 01:03:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15207422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YorkandDelta/pseuds/YorkandDelta
Summary: Matt is tasked with keeping a coin worth millions of dollars safe from the gangs of Los Santos when it comes to a local museum. This includes warding off undercover gang members who want to trick him into giving up the security code. Will Matt be able to find all the threats? Who can he trust?This is basically a loose interpretation of a 5+1 things where various FAHC members try to steal from Matt, and one ends up stealing his heart <3





	1. Matt

The thing about moving across the country on your own is that not only will no one help you carry your couch up stairs, but there is also no one to celebrate dragging a couch up five flights of stairs with. Matt dug through a box he hoped would have kitchen stuff in it, half heartedly starting to unpack. The day had been long enough. He had just arrived in Los Santos from South Carolina with a rented truck full of stuff. Most of the stuff fit in the elevator, so it hadn’t been  _ that _ bad, but the couch needed extra hands, which Matt did not have. His building manager grudgingly agreed to help, so at least Matt had a place to sit. 

Unfortunately he had nothing to eat. He hadn’t packed food from his last place and he didn’t have the energy to go grocery shopping that night. He could just order food, but he decided a beer was in order after his long day so he walked over to the pub he had seen down the road. 

It was a Saturday at a bar close to a college, so of course there was a crowd. There were no tables and he would have felt foolish sitting at one alone anyway, so he sat at the bar and looked at the menu. 

He was happily munching away at his nachos and sipping on a beer when he felt someone squeeze up to the bar beside him. He looked over to see a red headed woman in a very tight,  _ very _ low cut black leather top standing beside him. She grinned at him and asked. “Is this seat taken?”

Matt shook his head, his mouth full of corn chips and cheese. 

“I haven’t seen you at this bar before, are you new in town?”

Matt tried to swallow quickly without choking.“Uh, yeah actually. I just got in this afternoon.” 

“Wow, so brand new! What brings you to Los Santos?”

“I got a new job.”

“That is fantastic! Getting a job is hard to do these days. What do you do?”

“Well, normally I work in IT security, but I actually got hired by the local museum to help with a new exhibit they have.”

“That is a big jump! Are you into art and culture?”

“Honestly? Not at all. But I was headhunted.” A lie, but he hardly needed to go into  _ that _ story with a stranger at a bar. “The museum’s got an exhibit coming up and they are worried about theft with all the gang activity in the area.”

The stranger tipped her head back and laughed. “Well, welcome to Los Santos! At least you can’t say that no one warned you about the crime.” 

They continued chatting for a while. The stranger introduced herself as Jack. She told Matt about all the local hotspots and landmarks that he should visit. 

“Maybe I can show you around town sometime?”

“Yeah, sure. That would be a lot of fun.” Matt hadn’t expected to make a friend this soon after moving. Maybe he should go to bars more often. 

Then Jack leaned towards him and looked up at him through her long eyelashes. “Maybe I can start with bringing you back to my place.”

Matt choked on his beer. “Uhh...Ummm. Gee, that is really nice of you but uhhh….You aren’t my type?”

Jack just leaned in and lowered her voice. “Oh, and what  _ is _ your type?”

“Gay and single is usually a good start.” 

Jack laughed. “You’re right, that does rule me out. But here.” She wrote down something on a napkin. “Call me if you do want someone to show you around.” She winked and walked away from the bar. 

Matt finished his drink, paid his tab, and left too. The napkin stayed on the bar, no way was he going to call and make an even bigger fool of himself. 

Sunday was spent unpacking and cleaning his new apartment. He didn’t have a lot of stuff with him, just the essentials, so it didn’t take long. Before he knew it, Monday rolled around and he arrived at the museum. 

Matt wasn’t a museum-type of person. The building looked like a castle with a large glass box sat on top of the entrance. Inside the glass was a giant plastic jellyfish. Matt found the architecture intimidating and he felt extremely out of place. The lobby had a high ceiling with stairs at the back leading to the upper floors. All around were balconies which connected to the exhibit halls. Everywhere were carvings of animals and there was a mosaic of a moose on the floor. He walked up to the reception desk.

“Hi, I’m looking for Gwen? I’m the new IT guy.” 

The receptionist smiled. “Yeah, she told me to expect you. I’ll give her a call to let her know you’re here. You can head up to her office if you like, it’s on the third floor behind the birds.” She handed him a map with a circled an area on the second highest floor. 

Matt thanked her and went to the elevator. The stairs were prettier,winding around the outside of the glass, but after moving he was feeling lazy. 

He got off and looked around. On his left was the Earth Gallery filled with rocks and pictures of volcanoes and on his right was an exhibit space filled with stuffed birds. Beside the birds was a door labeled “Staff only.” He walked over and opened the door. Inside was a hallway. A woman stuck her head out of her office. 

“Hi! You must be Matt. I’m Gwen.”

“Hi. Nice to meet you. Wow this is a beautiful office!” 

“Haha, yeah. The staff all work on the exterior walls. The windows are bad for the displays. UV light and all that. This is actually the back of the gallery.” She said, tapping the opposite wall than the one with her office door. “Come on, I’ll give you a tour.” 

Matt followed her as she showed him the museum from top to bottom. They had a temporary exhibit space, which was still showing the last special exhibit on the brain, and various permanent exhibits. Matt saw displays about the arctic, the ocean, mammals, and dinosaurs. Finally they made their way to the basement. 

“Your office is down here, beside the creepy-crawlies. I hope you’re not afraid of bugs or spiders!” She led him to another Staff Only door and walked in. Behind it were a number of rooms. Most of them seemed to be storage and closets but there was a light coming from one of them. He followed Gwen into the room and saw a man working at one of the computers.

“And this is Jimmy, you two will be working pretty closely together. He will be a bit like your assistant here, since you’re the specialist. He also has to keep the internet running and appease our less tech-savvy coworkers.”

Now, with a name like Jimmy you’d expect a small, gangly guy. There is something about the name that suggests acne. But the man that stood to shake hands with Matt did not suit his name  _ at all _ . He was tall, dark, and handsome with piercing blue eyes. His dark hair was tied up in a ponytail and he looked way more muscular than any IT guy had any right to. He wore a crooked grin when he introduced himself.

Gwen showed Matt his desk. It was in the same room as Jimmy but on the other side of a flimsy wall partition for some semblance of privacy. Gwen left him to get settled, saying that Jimmy would bring him up to speed on the computer system they used. 

The laptop they had given Matt hadn’t been turned on in a long time, so of course there was a huge update to install before they could do anything. That gave Matt and Jimmy lots of time to chat and get to know each other. Matt discovered that Jimmy only started there a few weeks ago. The last guy had disappeared really suddenly, and no one really knew why. 

Before he knew it, it was time to head home. Talking with Jimmy really made time fly. The guy had a cheeky sense of humour and a cute chuckle. Matt was looking forward to having him as a coworker. 

The next day Matt was pulled into a meeting about the upcoming exhibit. It was on the history of minting coins, which sounded super boring. The point of the meeting was to introduce Matt to some of the people he would be working with and explain what his role was going to be. 

When it was finished Matt walked back to his office in a daze. He didn’t realize he was standing in one spot staring at the wall until Jimmy waved a hand in front of his face.

“Are you ok?”

Matt shook his head to clear it. “Oh man, that meeting did not go the way I expected it to. I need a minute to wrap my head around it.” 

“Oh yeah? What did you guys talk about?”

Matt knew they were going to announce the official story to the rest of the staff later that day, so instead he answered “Just, my role on this project is going to be very different than what I thought.” 

“Oh? I’m not actually sure what exactly you’re doing. I just know you’re a specialist of some kind.”

“There is some stuff coming from the Bodes Museum in Berlin that’s pretty valuable. They’re worried that if it comes to Los Santos one of the gangs will try and steal it, so they’ve asked me to set up a security system that can’t be hacked as well as the guards who will be there night and day.”

Jimmy whistled. “That sounds like a tall order. Whatever it is must be worth a lot of money to go through all that trouble! If you ask me all this fuss is just going to attract the gangs. Make it a challenge.”

They talked for a little longer about the gangs in Los Santos. Jimmy explained the shifting political structure that was the city’s underground. There were a few gangs but none were as powerful as the Fake AH Crew. They were made up of a team of specialists and had connections to a larger network of criminals from across the country and even had ties overseas. They were most famous for their stunts. A number of their jobs in their early days left them with very full pockets, and since they controlled the weapons smuggling ring in the city they had access to practically unlimited arms and ammo. Nowadays they didn’t have to worry about financing and could turn their thoughts to greater things, like absolutely ridiculous heists and stunts. There were rumours that they had done a few contracts for the government and police force,  _ Suicide Squad _ style, and now were owed so many favours that the law wouldn’t touch them. Rumours all but proven by the fact that they made no attempt to hide when they had races in the desert with supercars or aircraft. Apparently it was an event people would go watch - from a safe distance.

The big announcement came in the afternoon. Everyone crowded into the museum’s demonstration stage. There were even a bunch of people from the admin and storage building on the other side of the river. The president and chair of the board were on stage. They talked a bit about the exhibit and then showed the main attraction, the item that would be the forefront of their ad campaign: the million dollar coin. 

Minted by the Canadian government, it was made from the purest gold at 99.999%. The thing was massive: about two feet in diameter it weighed 100 kg or over 220 pounds. Only five were ever made. Even though it’s face value was 1 million Canadian dollars, the actual worth of that much gold would be closer to 5 million US dollars. 

The two presenters went on to describe the security measures that would be in place once the coin arrived at the museum and forced Matt to stand up and wave at people. It made him feel like his first day in a new school all over again. 

After the presentation was a catered lunch where Matt got to meet and greet his coworkers. There was a mix of artsy and academic types. The other facility was mostly a research space and had a number of research students working with the collection there. 

Matt had explicit instructions not to talk about the details of his work with  _ anyone _ except the board of directors, and even then, only himself, the chair, and a representative from the German museum were to know exactly how his system would work. He told most of his other coworkers vague details about what was going to be in place. Most of them were content to just hear there would be an unhackable firewall, and Matt enjoyed making up techy sounding jargon to those who obviously had no idea what he was talking about. People seemed impressed. They were even more impressed when they found out he had done some work with the Pentagon, the Department of National Defense, and even a little stint at NASA. Matt obviously refused to mention his  _ exact role _ with those agencies. For security reasons, you know? 

The exhibit was still three months away. They apparently plan these things years in advance to get all the loan and customs paperwork done. Matt was hired closer to the end of things but he was able to see the start of the ad campaign to get people to come to the museum. There were bus ads and banners hanging from lamp posts. Matt thought it was surreal to see the coin plastered all over the city. He agreed with Jimmy that it was only going to attract thieves to the exhibit, and since it was his job to stop the thieves, he was a little annoyed about it. 

One day on his way out of the office for lunch he was stopped by a man about his age. He was short with a bald head and beard. His strange appearance was explained when the man introduced himself as being an art student at a local university named Jeremy. He was doing a project for school and wondered if Matt would be able to help him out. Matt tried explaining that he wasn’t really involved with much on the museum side of things but the guy said he had left his project to the last minute and would take anything he could get at this point, so Matt agreed to do an interview over lunch. 

The questions were mainly about exhibit design. The elements that went together to make a visually appealing, yet informative, display. Matt was absolutely useless. He didn’t know anything about the lighting, paint colour, and mount making that went into a display case. He felt bad for the stressed looking student and did his best to answer what he did know. He talked about how the display cases locked, the security cameras, and the various types of alarms they had to make sure nothing got stolen. He wasn’t stupid enough to get into any specifics, and he purposely neglected to mention any information that would help a person get around the security measures. His suspicion was justified when Jeremy started asking about the upcoming exhibit and the extra security that would be in place there. Matt remained friendly but gave the vague, unhelpful, and just plain incorrect answers that he had given to his coworkers, but the student didn’t seem to mind. He probably didn’t understand the tech jargon either. 

The interview ended and Matt walked back to work, wondering if this would be the first of many attempts to get him to reveal how to break into the museum. It was pretty amateurish. He didn’t know if the guy realistically expected Matt to just announce his top secret codes to a stranger he had met minutes ago. 

He brought back a box of doughnuts with him. He swiftly discovered that he and Jimmy shared a love of all things sweet and sugary. The amount of pastries, pop, and energy drinks that were consumed in their basement was truely ungodly. Usually it was Jimmy who brought the treats. He had a sixth sense for when Matt was feeling tired or stressed or just hungry and would bring him food and caffeine. Matt really appreciated it. Maybe more than he should. There was something about an attractive guy offering him a twinkie that made him fight not to blush. He figured it was his turn to return the favour. 

Jimmy certainly perked up when Matt returned with the food. They both scarfed down three doughnuts even though they had already eaten lunch. He decided not to mention the pretend art student, he didn’t want Jimmy to worry about him. On his way back to his desk he bumped his leg on the sticking out drawer for the millionth time. 

“God dammit! I’m going to have a permanent bruise there! Why won’t this thing close!” He decided enough was enough and tried to force it closed but like all other times it wouldn’t budge that final inch. Frustrated, he yanked the drawer all the way out. He looked at the back to see if something had fallen in behind that was preventing him to close the damn thing and was surprised to see a notebook taped to the inside of the desk.

Matt pulled it out. Flipping through the pages he saw meeting notes and to do lists. He wondered why it was hidden in such an odd place until he reached the last few entries. 

“Uh, Jimmy?”

“Yeah?”

“The guy who worked here before, did you ever meet him?”

“No, I can’t say that I did. Why?”

“So you don’t know if he was super paranoid or anything?”

“No, what makes you say that?”

“Take a look at this.”

Matt showed him the notebook. The last few entries showed the writer was getting more and more panicked. 

_ They follow me home. They follow me EVERYWHERE!!!! _

_ The EYES. Always watching _

_ I can’t work. I can’t sleep.  _

_ What do they WANT FROM ME _

_ Can’t trust anyone Can’t trust anyone Can’t trust anyone _

_ Can’t trust anyone Can’t trust anyone Can’t trust anyone _

_ Can’t trust anyone Can’t trust anyone Can’t trust anyone _

_ Can’t trust anyone Can’t trust anyone Can’t trust anyone _

_ Can’t trust anyone Can’t trust anyone Can’t     STOP THEM _

“Yikes! I hope he’s ok!” Jimmy said. 

“Do you think they got him? Whoever they were?”

“I doubt it. Gwen said he moved across the country really suddenly.” He put his hand on Matt’s shoulder. Matt tried to pretend he didn’t feel extra warm at the contact. “I’m sure he’s fine, Matt. I just hope he is able to see a doctor about this.”

Despite Jimmy’s reassurance Matt couldn’t help but feel a little paranoid himself. What had caused his predecessors fear? Did it have anything to do with the job? Matt started to get extra suspicious about anyone who made small talk with him. A trait that came in handy not long after. 

He was at “Night at the Museum” which happened once a month and basically turned the museum into a giant club. DJs from local radio stations played at various locations in the building. The biggest dance floor was under the giant jellyfish which lit up at night. He’d heard it was a left over from an exhibit on Bioluminescence. 

Matt usually wouldn’t go out to these things, but  _ Jimmy _ had asked him if he was going, and he was not passing up the opportunity of seeing his cute coworker in a suit. The two had started spending more time together outside of work. They would get lunch together and had gone out for drinks after work a few times. They had also added each other on Xbox Live and gamed together on the weekends. Matt had to admit, he had a bit of a crush on Jimmy and was trying his best not to act super flustered whenever they went out.

In order to keep the drunken masses from ruining the artifacts, the museum ran events and kept the display spaces well lit and supervised during the party. Matt offered to help out with one for a few hours. He was put in the Creepy-Crawly room, which, frankly, did give him the creeps. The whole room was painted black with a black pyramid in the middle. Inside the pyramid was a theatre that showed clips from horror films like  _ The Fly _ and  _ Rats: Night of Terror _ . On top of the pyramid was a gigantic purple and green spider. All around were terrariums filled with spiders, centipedes, stick insects, cockroaches and more. And the  _ worst _ part was that whenever there was an empty tank for whatever reason the maintenance guys thought it was hilarious to put on a sticker that made the tank looked cracked and that whatever was inside was loose. It was realistic enough to make concerned guests alert the guards whenever it happened. It was a truly horrifying room. 

After he was done his time Matt wandered through the other exhibits, checking out how the activities were going and looking for Jimmy. He was in the geology section when someone called out “Excuse me!”

He turned around to see a gorgeous man leaning against a display TV, drink in hand. The space had fake rocks looking like a beach and the TVs all had little rubber boots on. It was cute, even if most kids these days wouldn’t recognize the old tube TVs with rabbit ear antenna on top. 

“Didn’t I hire you?” The man asked.

Matt was sure he had never seen this man in his life, he was pretty memorable with golden brown hair and a tan. He had striking green eyes and an admittedly large nose but it didn’t take away from how pretty the man was. But then again, Matt didn’t always meet his employers in person, they often contacted him anonymously online. And they liked to stay anonymous so Matt was confused about who this person could be. 

“David Goldberg at your service.” The man said, offering his hand to Matt. Matt recognized the name. The Goldberg family owned a development company in the city that had turned most of the greenspace into cookie cutter neighborhoods. They were enormously wealthy, and he was pretty sure one of them had been a mayor. They owned a mansion close to the museum and were one of the largest donors. 

“Matt Bragg. Nice to meet you.” Matt said, shaking the man’s hand.

“I thought so. I’m on the board of directors and we were consulted with all of the potential candidates for your position. I’m glad that you were the one to get the job, I hear you’ve been working extra hard.”

“Thank you. I’m just doing my best.”

“I hope you are. My family staked a lot of money in this little exhibit and we will not be pleased if anything were to happen while it’s here.”

“Well I you won’t have to worry about my side of things. Most of the work is done, there are just a few last minute changes that I’ll put to keep any robbers guessing.”

“Excellent!”

The two started talking about the museum. Mr Goldberg was charming. He seemed young to have such a prominent position at the museum, but he did come from money after all. He told Matt stories of some political intrigues going on at the moment and asked him questions about how he was liking the museum. Matt was feeling at ease with the conversation when he realized that the other man had steered it back to asking about the quality of the security measures.

Matt found himself offering a private tour of the exhibit space. Opening day was only three weeks away, so the hall was clear and the were starting to install the closed circuit cameras.

The donor seemed excited about the prospect of getting an early peek and eagerly followed Matt. Matt spotted his destination across a crowded room and maneuvered through the clusters of people towards it. 

“Hi Gwen!” He said to his boss. She turned away from her conversation with Jimmy to look at him. “I was wondering if we can arrange a tour of the special exhibit room for Mr. Goldberg here.” He said, relishing the slowly spreading look of panic on his guest’s face.

“Excuse me?” Gwen said, confused. 

“Mr. Goldberg.” He said, pointing to the other man. “We should get the whole board of directors in to look at the security before the exhibit opens.”

The visitor let out a pained laugh. “Haha oops, this joke went too far! I was only kidding around. Sorry to bother you!” And with that he turned on his heel and disappeared into the crowds again. 

“What was that?” 

“We should really get security to look for him. That was somebody pretending to be on the board of directors to learn more about the security for the coin exhibit.”

“What the fuck!” Gwen said and hurried off to find a security guard. 

Jimmy looked extremely amused at the exchange. “How did you know he was a fake?” He asked.

“Well for one thing, I’m pretty sure there is no reason for the Goldbergs to have a British accent, and for another, I’ve actually  _ met _ everyone on the board and he definitely wasn’t on it. And anyone who was would already know most of the things he was asking about.”

Jimmy laughed. “You’re so clever Matt! Outsmarting all of the bad guys of Los Santos.”

“Eh, I try.”

“So are you all done with your activity?” 

“Yeah, it’s someone else’s turn to play with the bugs.”

“Great, let me buy you a drink to celebrate your success at warding off all the dangerous criminals.”

The two brought their drinks up to the top level of the glass box. They looked down at the swarming dance floor below. It was quieter up here, just the two of them and only an occasional visitor taking pictures. They ended up talking about their hometowns. Jimmy grew up in Georgia and a small town there was pretty much the same as a small town in South Carolina. The two had a lot in common, especially the feeling of getting out to find like-minded people and more opportunities. 

The drinks they were serving must have been strong, because Matt found himself losing the last bit of his shyness around his crush. He kept inching closer until their shoulders were pressed together. Jimmy didn’t move away. Matt felt comfortable enough to bring up another reason why he left his small town, the small minded people who would have made it a dangerous place to be openly gay. 

Jimmy looked intensely at him at that admission and answered in a low voice, “Yeah, I know what that’s like.” He licked his lips and said “It sucks you had to go through that.” and wrapped his arm around Matt in a half hug. He didn’t move his arm when it was over and the two stood like that in silence for a few minutes, leaning against the rail. 

The DJ put on a slow song, signalling that the party was coming to an end soon. Matt was watching the couples pair off below him when he felt Jimmy turn towards him. He looked up. 

“Can I have this dance?”

“Yeah, for sure.”

And the couple danced. Jimmy’s hands warm even through Matt’s one nice dress shirt. As the song went on they drifted closer, holding each other tightly.

The song ended but neither man seemed inclined to let go. Matt pulled back a little to look at Jimmy and found him looking back with a sweet, fond expression. 

And in the glow of the bioluminescent jellyfish, they kissed. 


	2. Ryan

Ryan walked Matt back to his apartment because he was a  _ gentleman _ . A real southern beau. Plus it was a great excuse to spend more time with the person you’re sweet on. And boy, was Ryan sweet on Matt. 

They arrived at the door and stood on in front of it a little awkwardly. Ryan swallowed before asking, “Hey, did you want to go out for dinner tomorrow night?”

The smile that lit up Matt’s face made his heart beat faster. “Sure, I’d love to!”

“Great, I’m looking forward to it.” Ryan said as he leaned down and kissed Matt once more. 

“I had really good time tonight.” Matt said when the kiss was over. 

“Me too.”

“Well uh. Goodnight Jimmy!” Ryan had to hold back a wince at hearing the nickname. No one had called him Jimmy since he left his parents house, and to hear it now grated on him. But he had decided this job was too important to use a fake identity, so he went back to being called James, and by extension Jim and Jimmy. 

“Goodnight Matt. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ryan walked back to his apartment with a spring in his step. It was only when he got halfway back that he realized that he didn’t get to have this. 

The thing was - the  _ problem _ was that Ryan had a job to do. The plan was to go undercover as an IT guy at the museum and use Matt for information about that damn coin. Falling in love with Matt was not part of the plan, but here he was, doing it anyways. 

Ryan was part of the Fake AH Crew, and their fearless leader Geoff had decided the million dollar coin would be an excellent thing for them to steal. He was spending all his time planning an elaborate heist. 

Unbeknownst to him the rest of the crew had a bet going. If any of them were able to steal the coin  _ before _ heist day they would get to keep all of the whole take. They were keeping tabs on the museum since they first got wind of the loan. It was a simple matter to find out they were going to hire a security specialist and they all wanted to be the one who would get the secret code to unlock gold. 

Ryan knew Jack had approached Matt first. Tried to work the honeypot angle in a bar but was stumped when Matt showed no interest. Jeremy had gone next, posing as an art student, but he knew so little about both subtlety and technology that he tipped Matt off about his intentions and only realized he had recorded a bunch of nonsense when he got back to his apartment and looked up the terms on Google. Gavin was next, posing as a rich donor. Ryan will never forget the look of panic and horror on his face when Matt unknowingly called his bluff right in front of his own crew member. 

Ryan’s plan was to play the long game. He had successfully spooked the other IT guy into fleeing the city (he was alright, just unnerved). He had gained Matt’s trust and was hoping that they would work together on this project like a team, so that Ryan would know exactly what the security was like. 

But Matt was  _ funny _ and  _ charming _ , and yeah, a bit of an asshole, but he was the kind of asshole that suited Ryan’s assholeness perfectly. In a different world Ryan could see himself settling down with Matt and living with the white picket fence and their boring IT jobs and all that domestic stuff he had never appreciated before. 

Even if he pursued this thing with Matt eventually he would realize that Ryan wasn’t what he seemed. The truth would come out and it woudn’t be pretty. Ryan didn’t want to hurt Matt, but that meant not getting to be with Matt, and he was too selfish to go down that road. He hoped he could find a way to work this out. 

Their first date was amazing. And their second and their third. Ryan had never felt so comfortable with someone. It was the weekend before the exhibit opened and they had plans to meet up at the pier. Matt was running late, but Ryan wasn’t worried. Not unil the got the phone call. 

“Hi Matt! What’s up?”

“Jimmy, I know this sounds crazy, but I think someone’s following me.”

Cold fear lanced through Ryan’s heart. “What! Where are you right now, are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I ducked into a grocery store.” Smart, they are usually busy and well lit. Ryan went through his mental map to try and come up with stores between Matt’s apartment and the pier.

“What do they look like? How many are there?”

“Just one, I think? But it’s like he moves like a superhero. I’ve caught glimpses of him over the past few days and I swear I’ve seen him in one place and then turned the corner and seen him again. Unless he has a twin or something. He’s tall and thin, with dark hair pushed back from his head. Fairly good looking.” 

_ Trevor and Alfredo! _ At least Matt wasn’t in any real danger. Still, with the deadline of the exhibit opening so close the other members of the team might try something a little riskier to win the bet. “Which store are you in, I’ll pick you up.”

“I’m in the wholefoods on Sunnyside.”

“Ok. I’ll be there soon. Stay safe.”

He hung up and immediately dialed Trevor, disregarding the distracted driving laws. When his boss answered he didn’t even wait for the Hello. “Stop following Matt.”

“What! Do you think I’m going to let you have him all to yourself to win the bet -” 

“This isn’t about the  _ bet _ . He’s a real person and he just called me because he’s scared. Leave it.”

“Alright, but you better get that code off him, Geoff will need it for the heist too.”

“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do.”

By that time he reached the store and pulled up to the handicap spot in the front. He ran in and found Matt idling by the gumball machine. Ryn pulled him into a hug and led him to the car. 

They ended up at Ryan’s place instead of the pier. Matt didn’t seem shaken up after realizing he had a stalker which Ryan was grateful for. They put on a movie and cuddled up on the couch. 

Soon the two were trading kisses which turned into a full make out session. It turned heated with hands roaming over bodies and shirts being thrown off. Matt had one hand tangled in Ryan’s hair and the other was moving down his back towards his ass. 

Ryan started kissing down his partner’s neck, sucking lightly at the pressure point.

“ _ Jimmy _ ” Matt gasped. Ryan’s focus broke. He couldn’t do this. He pulled away.

Matt was lying underneath him. Shirtless, lips slick from kissing and hair disheveled. He looked up at Ryan with a question in his eyes. A vulnerability, wondering why Ryan stopped so suddenly. 

“Matt.” He said, pushing the hair out of his face. “I don't want to ruin this. There’s something we need to talk about before we keep going.”

Matt looked worried. “Ok…”

They sat up. The space between them made Ryan ache. He wanted to reach out and hold Matt’s hand. 

“So you know in movies when one character lies to another but the truth always comes out and the character gets into way more trouble for lying than he would have if he told the truth in the first place?” The words came out in a rush. Ryan knew he was rambling.

Matt narrowed his eyes. “What are you trying to say?”

“OK, so. I need to know something because if you find out about it after we do this I’m worried you’ll feel like I used you. I wasn’t… I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you.”

Matt backed away from him. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“I’m in a gang. I got the job at the museum to find out how to steal the gold coin. And now you’re going to think I’m just using you to get to it but I’m not! I really like you Matt and I really want this to-”

“It’s fake.” Matt interrupted.

“No! I swear! You’re amazing and how I feel about you is real-”

“Not you, the coin. The coin is fake.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Someone stole it like, four months ago. The museum covered it up because they didn’t want anyone knowing you can steal 5 million dollars worth of gold overnight without anyone noticing. The thing we’re going to display is a plaster copy covered in guilding.”

“How long have you known about that?” 

“Since my second day. Really messed up my plans. I had a back door code written into my algorithm. I was going to sell it to the highest bidder, but no way I could do that knowing it’s a fake.” 

“ _ What?! _ ” 

Matt smirked. “You’re not the only one who gets to confess things. I’m a hacker. I didn’t work  _ for _ all those government agencies, I hacked into their files and stole their data. Making references for myself so that the museum would hire me was child’s play.”

“But if you’re trying to sell the code why didn’t you try to sell it to the rest of the crew when they approached you about it?”

“I already told you, I couldn’t sell it after I found out it was fake! Also, everyone who’s approached me so far has been an  _ idiot _ and I’m not going to sell out to someone who might incriminate me immediately.”

“That’s a fair point.”

Matt looked thoughtful. “I probably would have sold it to you though. I honestly had no idea you were involved with this Jimmy.” Matt caught the pained look that flitted across Ryan’s face. “Oh my god. That’s not even your real name! I don’t know who you are at all!”

“No no! It is my real name, I promise! I just hate it so everyone calls me Ryan instead.”

“Thank god, Ryan is a much nicer name than  _ Jimmy _ .”

“But Matt, I promise, everything I told you has been true. I didn’t make anything up to trick you. I’ve told you more than most of my crew knows.”

“Alright. In that case, I think we were in the middle of something.” Matt leaned in and kissed Ryan and they picked right back up where they left off.

Ryan was glad he decided to be honest. 

The next morning Ryan drove Matt to the Fake’s base. They decided it would be better to explain to Geoff in person why his heist wouldn’t work. Ryan called ahead to make sure everyone would be there, but he decided not to tell them Matt would be coming.

Everyone froze when they walked in. Matt just turned to Ryan and said. “Huh, there are a lot more familiar faces than I expected.”

Once the room quieted down again after everyone yelled at Ryan about bringing strangers into the base, Matt was officially introduced to the crew. Some he knew already, even if he didn’t know their real names, but there were others he was meeting for the first time. When he got to Jack the woman just said. “You never called.”

“Yeah, I figured that it wasn’t my dashing good looks that brought you over, and hey look, I was right.” 

Jack laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Well now that I see what your type is I can’t exactly be mad now can I?” She asked, winking at Ryan. 

They moved to a boardroom with a large map of Los Santos pinned to the wall. Matt noticed that the museum was circled in bright pink highlighter. He explained to the crew the same thing he had to Ryan. The gold was gone. All that was coming was a plaster copy.

Geoff sounded so lost when he asked the question, “You mean to tell me after all this planning someone else swooped in and stole the gold?” 

He was interrupted by Lindsay laughing. “Nope!” She yelled and held up her phone to show a selfie or her, Michael, and Queen Elizabeth in all her golden glory. “You bitches ain’t shit! We win the bet motherfuckers!” 

By this point Michael was falling out of his chair he was laughing so hard. “HAHAHAHAHA This whole time you guys were fuckin’ trying to  _ seduce _ the security guy. And it was for a fake! HAHAHAHAHA” He had to wipe tears from his eyes he was laughing so hard.

“How’d you do it!?” Screeched Geoff.

“We flew to Germany and bought a ladder. They have an elevated subway station that runs right beside the museum. We just used the ladder as a bridge, forced open the window, stole the coin, and climbed back over the ladder. Easy! The hardest part was bribing a pilot to fly us back to America without checking our luggage.”

“Well  _ now _ what are we gonna do! I had a perfectly good plan to break into the museum and it’s going to be  _ wasted _ .” Geoff lamented. 

“It might not be.” Said Matt. All eyes turned to him. “On the opening night of the exhibit all of the security is going to be focused on the special exhibit space on the top floor. There’s plenty of other cool stuff in that museum. There is even a cool velociraptor skeleton on display right now.”

The crew looked at each other for a minute.

“Alright, let’s steal a dinosaur.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is based on real things!! Those coins exist (well, four of them) and one really was stolen like that!! Check it out! https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/coin-heist-arrest-1.4200761
> 
> Also, I love the thought that if Ryan went by James people would call him Jim or Jimmy.

**Author's Note:**

> If you think this museum sounds familiar, that's because it is based on a real one! Does anyone recognize it? Do I have any local readers?


End file.
